Michigan internets is good internets.

It's true, it's true.
Anyway. What happened today? ALENA FIXED MY CAMERA THATS WHAT HAPPENED 8D.

Then we went to the last little stall-selling-thing of the season, which everyone hoped would be big because Artprize is on this week, but apparently that stopped anyone from coming out. Very few people sold very much. I got a present for Felix. I'd post a picture (it's pretty cool) but I think he'd get grumpy for 'spoiling' it.

I just hope it fits.

I saw a Orange-Tailed Chazzwazzer today! Alena called it a Squirrel. Silly Americans.
I didn't get a picture though, as it was spotted running across the road as we were driving past it.

Baw.

We went out to dinner at the Olive Garden with Alena's family, including brothers and...I think cousins? And a brother-in-law, or something. And the girlfriend of one of the guys. Everybody there was cool. I heard 'maybe we should go to Outback Steakhouse instead, hohoho" twice tonight.
"That was funny the first time I heard it, guys. Several months ago."
"Well it's the first time I've said it, so it's okay! :D"

My coins got passed around a little bit (Alena insists it's the coolest thing,) and her older brother and I got along really well.

I spent much of the afternoon describing Australia to Alena and her mother. Mostly telling horrorstories about the wildlife (especially water-dwelling creatures) and dispelling certain myths.
Like "Koalas are cute and cuddly."
Alena's poor mother looked so horrified at the videos showing the sounds those things make.

Oh, and Alena's dog Sadie no longer hates me. When I arrived last night she'd run around barking and terrified. By this afternoon she'd let me pet her.

She's so cute when she's not running around insanely.

I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE

Okay, I doubt anybody's been checking or worrying or whatever, but yeah, I'm alive. I was with my buddy Soro in Peebles, Ohio, and only had dialup internet, which wouldn't allow me access to Blogger.

A LOT HAS HAPPENED. YES INDEED.
First, I'll write up some very brief reviews.
Good first.
Layli's family, that I stayed with first, deserves special mention in here for being amazing. Seriously. They're all just really cool people. Good conversationalists, intelligent, knowledgable, fun. Plus Sarah's a fairly awesome cook.
Five thumbs-up out of five, would stay there again.

Now for the bad.
UNITED AIRLINES.
NEVER. NEVER FLY UNITED AIRLINES. EVER.
You'd think 45 minutes would be plenty time enough to get from one plane to another. Especially since the airlines wrote up the ticket. I booked from one place to the other, they organised the inbetweens with connections to that place from this place, etc.
Well, not when we sit on the runway for the entirety of that 45 minutes doing absolutely NOTHING while the pilot has his thumb so far up his butt he makes the Goatse Guy look like an amateur.

Normally I'd put a pic here, but nobody needs to see that again.

The plane left without me, I had to wait two hours or something for the connection, then the next flight had a delay of half an hour.

So bugger those guys.

I've stayed with Soroma for the past near-week. He's a great guy, I've known him about seven years now.

Bros for life, yo.

I taught him to use a sword, everything was hunkydory. We went to Serpent Mound, which was cool, but it was a surprise so I didn't have my camera on me at the time. I did take a picture of a butterfly, though.

Not a bad shot from several feet away.

We also went to Portsmouth to see the Floodgate Murials. Muri...Myer...PAINTINGS.

I envy not these ancient winters.

  

So basically, Ohio was nice. Hot as buggery, though, and very humid. Soroma owns the complete collection of Calvin and Hobbes, and the box-set of SatAM Sonic the Hedgehog. Much fun was had. The only real down-point was that yesterday, Soro's six year old neice broke my camera, right after we took her photograph. She insisted.

Gaze into the face of EVIL.

So, unfortunately, I've no pictures of the drive to Michigan, where I now am with a dear old friend, Alena.  We're off to a little art-show tomorrow, where Alena will sell absolutely adorable buttons that she makes. I will be bringing back a little bagful as presents for people =3

Sorry for small post after such a long absence, but I've driven eight hours or so today and I'm wrecked.

The Sick Couch

Blargh, sick!
Layli, her younger brother Gareth and I have all been afflicted with some disgusting flu-virus thing. So the past day or two we've spent sitting on the couch in the livingroom, dubbed 'the Sick Couch' and treated as a sort of quarantine, watching Harry Potter movies because the internet has also been mostly out. A guy came by to fix it this morning and it's been better, but still troublesome for me =/

Nothing really to blog about, past that. I'll leave here for Ohio in the next few days, where I'll be staying with my buddy Soroma. The family here has been lovely to me, and are all amazing. Sarah has a book she wrote about King Arthur as a vampire. So amazing. When I come back I have to read it.

Grumps.

So, I knoooowwww I havn't had an actual blogpost in a little while. The internet's been playing up and so it's been frustrating to attempt to do anything. In fact, the router ended up fizzling out entirely this morning. However, after the acquisition of a new router and some gentle prodding by Felix (who can go have a glass of chilli sauce [not much of a drink] for his insubordination), I'm back, baby!

Though there's not really much to report at the moment. Layli's been feeding Buffy to my eyeballs. I also watched Serenity, which was definitely good but a little bit of a letdown in some areas. Oh, and the American version of Cream Soda is amazing. More ice-creamey. Also brown. Ours is pink, so...yeah. It was a little odd, I guess.

I posted this story on my facebook, but I'll go into more detail here; I became 'The Australian Guy' for a few moments yesterday when I went in and bought a book from the Salvation Army. I was fumbling with the coins (it was 37 cents) trying to figure out which was which, and remember how much a nickel and a dime were worth and such, and this woman was looking at me as if I were some alien from the outer rims of the galaxy. With a mental deficiency. So I said "Sorry, I'm not used to these coins, I'm from Australia."
"Australia? You're from Australia?"
"Yeah. I'm just lucky I didn't end up trying to give you Australian coins."
"Wow, this must be your first rodeo up here! Wait, Australian coins? Can I see the Australian coins?" I didn't mention I wasn't going to the rodeo.
"Sure, here's a five-cent and a two-dollar, it's all I've got on me." I've a few of the former on me, only one of the latter. I need to visit a changing place so I can show them to my friends.
"Oh wow!" She called a friend over from the other checkout. "Look at the Australian penny!"
"Actually that's a two dollar coin."
They both basically went googly at that point. It was kinda adorable, really.

I got Layli to try English Toffee for the first time, and she liked it a lot. I also got my mother a present!
As I was preparing to leave for America, my mum insisted I get her some turqoise. "None of that tourist crap! Real stuff! It has to be real turqoise!" she said. So, yesterday, as we were wandering around town, we walked past a jewellery store. And, as luck would have it, they were having a 30% off sale on turqoise and silver! So i got my mum a pair of earings and a ring, both with turqoise and red deep-sea coral.

I think they're purty :3

I'm not sure my mum reads this, though I did put the link in her favourites.

What else happened in the past couple days? Oh, I saw an adorable car that I had to take a picture of. Just because of its numberplate.

  You might not be able to see, but it says "BUG NN."

Oh, and kitties. A picture of one of Layli's family's cats, Luke, was the first picture taken with the new camera.

...However, the internet is being a 'tard again so I can't upload it D: Eventually there will be a picture up of Luke and also one of the neighbour's cats who seems to live under Layli's family's porch. They're adorable :3

Oregon! ...FOR REAL YOU GUIZ.

So, yesterday I went to the fair again! I had bad Chinese food and an even worse hotdog.

By the way, quarter-pound hotdogs are nowhere near as big as you may think. Here is my disappointedfaec;

"The shit is this fuck?"

I also got to bite into Layli's caramel apple! :3 Here's my HOLYCRAP, DELISHUS face.

"IF THERE WAS A WAY TO PERMANENTLY FUSE THIS TO MY FACE I WOULD NOT HESITATE A HEARTBEAT"

So that's basically all I did at the fair. We'd seen it all, it was no longer interesting. I did not get to sample a Funnel Cake though :(

So, I basically went home and slept.
Then in the morning, (this morning, oh morning dear morning ahoooyyyyy) we packed up the car and drove to Oregon! OREGON FINALLY YES OREGON. I also took a photo or two on the drive, just because Washington looks so much like the area around my home near Toowoomba in Queensland. Picture in a later edit, because the Internet and Blogger are both being crap.
Edit: Here we go.  

East Washington; like Eastern Queensland, but brown.

So apparently here in the little-ish town of Pendleton it's the tenth anniversary of Roundup, a huuuuuuuge rodeo-fair thing that also coincides with a sort of pow-wow thing for the Native Americans all through the area, including the Umatilla, the local tribe, that Layli's dad works for. It's technically three tribes smooshed together on one reservation, but yeah. They set up tipis on the rodeo-grounds, but nobody's camping there yet, so it was all...kinda surreal and creepy. I've never seen a tipi before in real life, and they're much bigger than I imagined for some reason, and they were all in rows and completely abandoned.

Not pictured; Children of the Maize.

While we were in town, we wandered around, went to Walmart (where I got a new camera which is the opposite of the camera I was using already, I.E it's actually good. It'll be a present for my mum when I get back, probably.) and also Baskin and Robins for icecream. It was amazing, as icecream tends to be. We were also extremely successful at not getting mugged, despite the fears my parents as I was leaving. I turned my back, yet Kermit the Frog did not bust out of a manhole and stab me in the spleen with a dirty heroin-needle. Hurrah!

Oh, and I have to mention, I've found a new favourite-thing. Pepperjack Cheese. It's Montery Jack (A cheddar-style cheese, fairly mild and smooth, quite nice) with TINY BITS OF JALAPENO IN IT IT'S SO AMAZING I CAN'T EVEN EXPRESS HOLY WOAHHHHHHHHH.

Oregon's a very pretty place. I took photos of the river here (again, later update, since it's being weird) and apparently you can come and see salmon-runs later in the year. This confuses me, as in Australia, salmon are far more inclined to go for a swim than a run.
Edit:

 It's...It;s a river. Can't really say more than that. I'm not funny enough to make rivers amusing.

It's also apparently redneck central. As I said, I'll edit this post for pictures at some point, but I've a picture of a big sign that says 'Get"r done.' Yes, with a " instead of a '. I assume they didn't have any for the sign.
Edit:

Tomorrow I go in search of some batteries that will last more than five minutes, and will try and get a photo of myself with the family I'm staying with. Because they're really, really awesome, and I kind of want them to adopt me so that I'll always have people to converse with in geek-speak and also so I never have to give up PepperJack.

I'll miss you, Pepper Jack ;w;

The fair! :3

Also photos coming up!

But the main thing is, I WENT TO THE FAIR, APRIGHPEAJVBEIEFA;JNE EXCITEMENT.
People seemed pleased whenever they discovered I was Australian. Like they were suddenly ambassadors to the country or something.
Oh and it turns out I'm in Washington at the moment. A few hours from the border. I landed in Walla Walla, which I thought was in Oregon, but turns out is just over the border to Washington. Then we drove further -away- from Oregon. But only like two hours away, which is superclose from an Australian point of view.

Anyway! Today was wonderful! I got to try Root Beer (It's basically just Sars. Delicious, but slightly disappointing) and...*drumroll*
A foot long corndog!
A FOOT LONG CORNDOG.
Australia has foot long nothing. Except Subway sandwhiches. Omnomnom, delicious Subway.

I even got photo evidence of my enjoying my root-beer float and corndog. However, neither of them are flattering pictures. Especially the corndog one, which is like the worst photo of me ever. I had to move to avoid tomato-sauce spillage, and half-slipped, just as Layli took the picture. Thusly I look like HORFLEDORFLEDORF
Pics: 

.

"HORFLEDORFLEDORF"

 Apparently Layli delights in taking unflattering photos, apparently, because she refused to take another one. Also she keeps saying "I delight in taking unflattering photos of people!"

We saw bunnies at the fair! Delightful bunnies!

Also duckies!

And...A giant Chazwazzer. Apparently they called it Patience. I called it Terrifying.

The Duckfaced Chazwazzer, commonly known as the Nightmare-Eating Chazwazzer.

Oh, and a sheep that's apparently also a werewolf. Or a cookie.

I'm onto you, Snaps. I'm onto you.

I tried Indian Fry-Bread, too. It was pretty good, but it's served with sweet stuff...which works for the doughy bits, but the crunchy bits dont work too well with the sweetness. I could imagine it being really nice used sorta like a naan-bread or something, though. I got two so Layli and I could both have one cause she'd never tried it before either, and each one turned out to be larger than a dinnerplate. They did not get finished.

Might be going back to the fair tomorrow. No idea yet really. I'm hoping to, because there's still stuff I havn't tried. Delicious-looking stuff. Like funnel-cake! And I've had curly-fries before but I freaking love curlyfries so tomorrow I think I'll get some curlyfries. And I might get a buffalo burger/sausage. Apparently buffalo's pretty good. And a quarter-pound hotdog! HOW BIG MUST THIS THING BE. I also saw an advertisement for a foot-long sausage. I think it was the buffalo thing. Like a hotdog but with an actual sausage. A FOOT LONG SAUSAGE.

...I'm going to get so fat... :'(

TOTALLY WORTH IT.

So...so tired...

Okay, I'm officially in...Well, I don't remember the little town's name. It's in Oregon, am here over the weekend for the fair. It's pleasing, because I get to meet a friend I'll call DeeRee so that Playgrounders will recognise her and other people will not. I don't think I would've gotten to otherwise. She's lovely :3
So. It's 5:48 PM on the Ninth of September at the moment, and the only moments sleep I've had since I landed in Seattle was on the plane to Oregon. Which was a 50 minute flight.

My body hates me right now.

Oregon's a beautiful place. When I looked down out of the window of the plane, all I saw was gold. Everywhere. Beautiful gold wheatfields as far as the eye could see, in this area.

I've socialised a little, what with the two-hour car trip and suchlike. Everyone's doing their own thing at the moment, though, and for me, that means attempting to sleep once I finish this post.

Also. Guys. For the love of everything, don't try the Pretzel Pieces that come with honeymustard flavoured powderstuff on them. They're so horrifyingly horrifying that I can't even words.
Carew: "Go on, try one."
Me: "I'm...not sure I'm game D:"
Carew: "Do it!"
Me: "...*try* DDD8 BLEH"
Everyone else in the car: Uproar of laughter.
Me: ;w;

It stripped me of all I had left of my youthful innocence and replaced it with evil and the taste of decaying souls and McDonalds wrappers.

Anyway, I think it is night-night time for Anuans. The real fun starts tomorrow! :D

Arghlefarglefard!

So, I'm in America.
I've been to Los Angeles airport and am currently sitting (at twenty past midnight on the ninth) in the spot where I'm going to be sleeping tonight. Seattle Tacoma International Airport! Hurrah!
My first order of business would be to pee, but the mens bathroom is out of order. Rarghleblarg.

However, I've got interbutts! Which means Blogification! Yay!
I retain the ability to text from my Australian phone, but it's quite expensive and I don't think I can buy Telstra credit here. Must find local SIMcard.

My flight between Melbourne and L.A was actually pretty good; very smooth, quiet, I was sitting next to this -lovely- old couple, and I had a marathon of Modern Family, The Simpsons, and a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother to keep me entertained. The inflight dinner was pretty good, too; I got a mediterranian lamb thingy with rice and vegetables (the vegies were crap, barely cooked, but other than that it was okay.) and it came with a breadroll and a mint and dessert, a little cakey thing. The only problem was that the serving guy didn't listen very well. That night, I asked for the lamb, and got the chicken first. The chicken would've been good except it was basically Chicken and Mushrooms. I hate mushrooms.
The next morning (ish. weird timezone thingie!) they came around with two options. Cereal and other cold stuff, and scrambled eggs with sauteed mushrooms, hashbrown and fried tomato. I don't like tomato unless it's turned into stuff, and I don't like mushrooms at all, so I said "I'll take the cereal, pl-"
"Eggs it is, sir!" He then rushed off.
The hashbrown was the only edible thing. Oh, and the yoghurt would've been nice too, but I was feeling a bit crook, so I just had the hashbrown and some tea. Delicious tea.
A stein of tea, a stein of tea...
The eggs were a solid mass of rubberishness. I won't go into how the mushrooms looked D:

But other than that, the 'getting to America' part of the trip has been good. I got my first American money out, and brought Pretzels! I got change back involving single-dollar bills and was confused as crap for a few moments. And a penny! American pennies are so, so tiny! They're adorable!

I have yet to see a Chazzwazzer of any sort. Or a huge fat guy in an hawaiian t-shirt.

Oh! And when I was landing in Los Angeles, there was a mountain sticking through the cloud. That doesn't happen in Australia. Our mountains are too small and wimpy.

Here we go!

My name is Anuan.
I'm eighteen, nearly nineteen years old.
Since I was twelve, I've been saying that when I was eighteen, I'd go to America and visit people I knew there.
Tomorrow, that happens. It's been a long time coming and there's been a lot of failures along the way (I was originally hoping to get to go to Gencon, but there was trouble with my passport. Baww.) but it's finally happening. I'm more than a little scared. It's a big thing for me. When I was a kid, my parents often commented I'd never leave my home state.

I'm making this blog to track my progress. For any friends that are interested, but also for my mother, who was hugely concerned that I would end up a "body in a ditch." My father was more frightened that I'd become a 'bumboy to a hermaphrodite.' Thanks, dad. Glad to know the integrity of my anus is so important to you.

I land in Las Angeles, then go to Seattle, where I will sleep in the airport before flying to Walla Walla. I'll be staying with my friend Layli for a while, bouncing around Oregon a little bit, then heading Eastward. It should be fun. Hurray for sleeping in an airport! :( Mumblegrumble stupid friends living in stupid obscure areas. Mumblegrumble. Oh well. I get to go to a fair! With corndogs. Delicious corndogs, omnomnom.
Fun fact for my American friends reading this; we have fairs and corndogs too. They're called 'shows' and 'dagwood dogs' or 'pluto pups.' Because we're cool like that. Also 'ketchup' is 'tomato sauce.'

I wonder if this fair will have deep-fried everything.

Oh, and Kitty, don't worry. Anything I havn't previously found in Australia will be quickly dubbed a Chazwazzer forever-more.